College of the Opera

As a College of the Opera bard, you can use your voice as a spellcasting focus, empower your allies with brilliant performances, debilitate your enemies with scathing verbal ripostes, and even capture the souls of your audience. Only the most splendid and dramatic of bards dare follow this path...will you be among them?

Just a quick note: Aria di Bravura requires a reaction. This will be updated in the next version, once we've finished gathering feedback and comments!

Kelli BDecember 27, 2018 11:41 pm UTC

One may say given the bravura style and how quickly you have to sing, reaction is appropriate. MWahahah

Ed RDecember 26, 2018 2:17 am UTC

PURCHASER

I can't reply to a reply on a review, so I'll reply here.

Creator Response:

> if you compare to the College of Swords 3rd level features, I think
> you'll find that bards get quite a lot at 3rd level and buffing this one
> spell is no more powerful than the blade flourish options.

I follow the Mike Mearls rule to compare all subclasses to the core subclasses, not to those in Xanathar's or other sourcebooks, because those are often deliberately "better" in some ways. And I have to agree with John B., 'stunned' is a devastating condition, and way too powerful for a 2nd level cone or area of effect spell that also deals damage. But to break Mike's rule and compare it to the Blade, the flourishes add -- at best -- one bardic inspiration die to the damage against one creature. Stunning, say, three creatures guarantees critical hits against them from all attacks until the stun is broken. That is WAY more powerful than a Blade's flourish... and the...See more flourishes require the expenditure of one of the bard's precious-few inspiration dice. The multi-target stun costs the same spell slot you'd be using anyway. I can't agree that the two are comparable.

>I wanted the quality of the performance to matter for flavor.

Then I suggest setting a DC that will grant disadvantage on the saving throw.... disadvantage is the equivalent of -5, which, assuming a maxed level 14 bard has a DC of 18 (assuming no magical Charisma-over-20 boost), that would set the difficulty around the equivalent of a 23, which is virtually unachievable by most characters at that level.

> This is also an ability that's mostly social, doesn't do any damage

I must disagree to some extent. The ability eliminates the ability to be resurrected (which includes fast rezzes like Revivify)... imagine a DM using that on a Player's beloved PC.... And notwithstanding that, not all characters own their own soul... I'd have issue with this ability affecting a Warlock of the Fiend, whose soul most likely doesn't belong to them in the first place, or an intelligent undead that technically is no longer in possession of their soul. I think a figurative "owning" without the resurrection angle but maybe with some other perk works far better than a literal owning of a soul... a 14th level bard isn't more powerful than a contract ratified by Asmodeus. It definitely seems like a cool ability... I just think it needs a little more work with consideration of the many factors at play.

> most high-level enemies will have Legendary Resistances.

Which is why most players will not use it on Legendary creatures, but use it on henchmen, guards, and the like.... by your own words, it's "mostly social," so isn't likely to come into play against a Legendary opponent in combat. Assuming a bard of this type has Expertise in Performance and is stat-maxed at 14th level, their MINIMUM DC would be 16 if they rolled a 1, but could go up to 35! if they rolled a twenty... anything over 25 is considered virtually impossible, especially since a "natural 20" means nothing for saving throws... it just means you add 20 to your modifier.

Despite all my critiques, I really like the subclass. I just think there are some balance issues, and I wouldn't use it in my games "as is." That doesn't mean I wouldn't use it... I'd just tweak it first and adjust through my own playtesting... though personally, with playtesting my homebrews, I've always found its better to risk being "too weak" and adjusting up than being "OP" and adjusting down... Players like having their class choice improved for them rather than having it nerfed mid-stream.

It's a fabulous idea, and well crafted... with a little more balancing, my initial rating would go up to 5 stars pretty quickly....

Kelli BDecember 26, 2018 3:17 pm UTC

Hi Ed!

There will be a balance/tweak after more playtesting (as well as clarification of things like Aria di Bravura being a reaction). I'm glad you enjoy the subclass, and I trust you'll give it a second look after the tweaks!

Also, I mean....*I* would totally try Piercing Resonance on Strahd......heehee

John BDecember 27, 2018 1:25 am UTC

PURCHASER

So here is my suggested fix (at least how I would try it) for Piercing Resonance: After saves are rolled, may expend one Bardic Inspiration die to stun one affected target that failed it save. I find this similar to stunning strike and Ki points, while limiting it too. The idea is that the one who failed the save is the one the voice was focused on.

I built a character that my DM allowed me to use the character's singing voice as a spellcasting focus, but I used the College of Lore for the build. Now with this new option that I can play, I'm looking forward to revamping that character and building [...]

As an opera singer in real life, I adore this class and how it can bring a flair of the operatic into 5e! I'm making a character with it to trial run in our group's next one-shot and I'm very excited to try it out. Thank you so much for this fun and ch [...]

This looks fantastic! You did a great job of making this subclass stand out from the other bardic subclasses while being rooted in it's core mechanics. The supporting cast and capture soul features in particular are really flavorful and unique. Fantast [...]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of a Bardic College with a vocal performance emphasis - that's way overdue. But what's most delightful about this build is the way it really incorporates the flavor, spirit, and culture of opera. And overall it looks fun to pl [...]

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